Investigations into illegal acts of President Trump's inner circle increasingly suggest those men took their orders from him. So one has to wonder how long congressional Republicans, including Iowa's U.S. senators, Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst, will keep carrying water for Trump.

Judging from the deafening silence, the answer appears to be: for as long as Trump is in power.

But when the president is finally held to account, surely those who stood by him on Capitol Hill will have to answer for their own spineless, enabling behavior. As former FBI director James Comey put it Monday, “Republicans used to understand that the actions of a president ... the words of a president ..., the rule of law ... and the truth matter. Where are those Republicans today, to their everlasting shame?”

If there still are any, they're in a lonely place. Ask Iowa state Sen. David Johnson of Ocheyedan.

He leaves the Legislature next month after 20 years, the first four in the House. He blasted Trump back in June 2016. He also quit the party, saying, “I will not stand silent if the party of Lincoln and the end of slavery buckles under the racial bias of a bigot.” That was after Trump had complained that a Mexican-American federal judge could not make an unbiased ruling on a lawsuit involving Trump University because of his Mexican heritage. It was also after he had mocked a reporter with disabilities.

Johnson was the first elected Republican in Iowa, and one of the first in the nation, to disavow Trump. It was a gutsy move, but because of it the senator who refused to toe the party line will no longer hold public office. "There are consequences to the decision to suspend, for now, my Republican registration. I am fully aware of that," Johnson said at the time. "Many of the voters who elected me are supporting Mr. Trump. I respect that, but disagree that he is qualified to lead the nation and the free world."

Johnson knew that in Senate District 1, which he has represented, Democrats account for only 18 percent of registered voters, independents for 32 percent and Republicans for half. What he hadn't expected was the backlash from Republicans in office. "They were out to get me," he said of Senate GOP leaders. "There was a price on my head."

They wouldn't appoint him to any committees; it took Senate Democrats, in the minority party, to put him on Natural Resources and Environment. A co-chair of the state Republican Party called him a Benedict Arnold, and local and state Republican leaders vowed to defeat him in last month's elections. By August, Johnson said, the hostile climate "had an effect on me," and he didn't run. A new Republican senator from his district will be sworn in this January.

Sen. David Johnson, I-Ocheyedan(Photo: Rekha Basu)

So Johnson knows why more Republican elected officials refuse to call out Trump or vote against him. It's not, he insists, from allegiance to particular policy priorities. “They’re afraid of losing their seats.”

Johnson calls himself a "Bob Ray Republican," for the moderate views the late governor embraced. That's ironic since his father, Donald E. Johnson, ran against Ray in a Republican governor's primary in 1968. A national commander of the American Legion, Donald Johnson was later appointed to head the Veterans Administration.

David was a newspaper publisher and a former first responder and firefighter. He said his approach from early in his legislative career was to invite all stakeholders to the table and tell them they needed to stay and work on things in a way that was fair to everyone. But such consensus-building doesn't happen in today's party, he said. In his first term, he supported legislation to impose weight limits on the transportation of farm equipment, and to require child safety seats in cars. He said for the latter, he was "pounded by people who said this was government overreach," including the House GOP majority leader. The bill passed the House but wasn't taken up in the Senate —until Johnson became a senator and shepherded it through three years later.

Johnson also broke from the GOP to oppose Medicaid privatization and cuts to education and health care. He has stood up for environmental protections, sponsoring legislation last session for a moratorium on hog confinements with more than 300 hogs. The legislation failed to advance. But he alienated Democrats and progressives in 2016 by voting to de-fund Planned Parenthood and any organization that offers abortions. And last session he supported the fetal heartbeat bill, which this column has vigorously opposed.

Johnson said he believes all human life must be treated with dignity and accuses Republican political forces of "weaponizing" abortion, and many "pro-lifers" of just being "pro birth." I'd argue politicians are welcome to live by their personal convictions but not to deprive pregnant women and girls of their rights to do the same.

But I see the value in politics of someone who doesn't feel beholden to either party's line and is willing to hash things out using reason. Despite everything, Trump has an 81 percent approval rating with registered Iowa Republicans. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a fellow Republican who has criticized him, is viewed favorably by only 16 percent of Iowa Republicans. That blind faith in the president helps explain how demagogues and their yes men and women keep control: because people won't think for themselves.

That can and must change in this state, where presidential candidacies begin and end. If everyone with a conscience and a voice in either party makes them heard, others may be forced to reckon with their own ethics and integrity. Separately or together, as poll respondents and voters, as candidates and campaign advisers, it's on us now.

Contact: rbasu@dmreg.com Follow her on Twitter @rekhabasu and at Facebook.com/rekha.basu1106. Her book, "Finding Her Voice: A collection of Des Moines Register columns about women's struggles and triumphs in the Midwest," is available at ShopDMRegister.com/FindingHerVoice.